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Motivation The complexity, diversity, and volume of federal and state regulations: are detrimental to business increase the risk of companies failing to comply with environmental regulations hinder public understanding of the government

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Background Current state of compliance checking: Paper-based process Locating and interpreting the relevant regulations is complex, even with the help of supplementary information Small companies have difficulty conducting compliance checks due to lack of resources and knowledge Vision for future: Up-to-date regulations and compliance-checking assistance procedures available online Improved regulation and compliance requirement transparency through clear presentation and linking

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Hierarchical Document Structure PART 279Standards For The Management Of Used Oil Subpart B – Applicability … § 279.12 Prohibitions. (a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. (b) Use as a dust suppressant. The use of used oil as a dust suppressant is prohibited, except when such activity takes place in one of the states listed in § 279.82(c). (c) Burning in particular units. Off-specification used oil fuel may be burned for energy recovery in only the following devices: (1) Industrial furnaces identified in § 260.10 of this chapter; (2) Boilers, as defined in § 260.10 of this chapter, that are identified as follows: (i) Industrial boilers located on the site of a facility engaged in a manufacturing process where substances are transformed into new products, including the component parts of products, by mechanical or chemical processes; …. § 262.11 Used Oil Specification. ….. Subsection (a) Subsection (b) Subsection (c) Subsection (d) 40 CFR 279 Subpart ASubpart BSubpart I Section 262.10Section 262.11Section 262.12 … … …… contains (a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units … Example: Translate

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(a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. Before: (a) Surface impoundment prohibition. Used oil shall not be managed in surface impoundments or waste piles unless the units are subject to regulation under parts 264 or 265 of this chapter. After: Parsing References Original XML document XML with Reference List Reference Extraction

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Regulation Assistance System (RAS) Provides a unifying web interface for the regulation documents and meta-data Demonstrates the usefulness of XML structured regulation documents with meta- data Works with a logic-based compliance- checking assistance system to demonstrate web-based regulation services

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XML Embedded Logic all _o (usedOil(_o) -> -(dustSuppressant(_o))). Rule logic represents the rules specified by the regulation: 40.CFR.279.12.b – Use as a dust suppressant: The use of used oil as a dust suppressant is prohibited… Option elements define the user interface: Is the used-oil used as a dust suppressant? (usedOil(oil1) & dust_suppressant(oil1)). (usedOil(oil1) & (-(dust_suppressant(oil1))). Control statements specify processing instructions for compliance-checking:

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Summary Regulations can be decomposed into structured XML documents Adding rich meta-data about regulations enables more sophisticated interaction with the documents Automated assistance with environmental compliance-checking may be possible